Michael Pelzel (1978-)
Sempiternal Lock-in, pour grand ensemble et harpe seul
Sculture di suono in memoriam Giacinto Scelsi, pour grand ensemble
…along 101…, pour ensemble
…sentiers tortueux…, pour ensemble

Klangforum Wien
Johannes Kaliztke, direction
Sylvain Cambreling, direction
Peter Hirsch, direction

The most recent CD of Edition Zeitgenössische Musik portrays the Swiss composer Michael Pelzel. The amalgamation of sound layers and the development of his own tonal colors are fundamental to his works. In an interview with Björn Gottstein, Pelzel said: "The goal is to construct a chord which fuses into a homogeneous sound, from double-bass register to soprano register, and is given its own colour due to the interspersed microintervals which can be put down to the overtone series of the bass tone". In his hitherto most important work "Sempiternal Lock-in", Pelzel deals with the complex interlocking of parts. Inspired by a stay in South Africa and the interlocking technique of Amadinda playing, he developed his own technique of interlocking parts such that they "do not interlock properly, but actually slip constantly" (Gottstein). As a consequence, the listening impression deliberately given is not that of a continuous figure, but of a kind of limping or stumbling. The present recordings were recorded by the Austrian top ensemble Klangforum Wien. And a portrait concert was dedicated to Michael Pelzel, who was a scholarship holder of the Berlin Artists' Programme of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), as part of the festival Ultraschall Berlin during which part of the pieces could be produced for the CD.